Energy. Environment. Economy.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell: 'I made a mistake' on shale gas

As the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania, Marie Cusick covers energy and environmental issues for public radio stations statewide. She’s also part of NPR’s energy and environment team, which coordinates coverage between the network and select member station reporters around the country. Her work frequently airs on NPR shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Since 2012, Marie has closely followed the political, social, environmental, and economic effects of Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom. Her work has been recognized at the regional and national levels– honors include a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and a national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Previously, Marie was a multimedia reporter for WMHT in Albany, New York and covered technology for the station’s statewide public affairs TV show, New York NOW. In 2018, she became StateImpact’s first FAA-licensed drone pilot.

Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, center, greets Democratic National Committee representatives in Philadelphia. At a panel discussion on Wednesday Rendell said he made a mistake prioritizing the economic benefits of shale gas ahead of environmental protection in the early days of the drilling boom.

Former Governor Ed Rendell said he regrets putting economic gain ahead of environmental protection at the start of Pennsylvania’s shale gas boom. Speaking at a DNC event hosted by Politico in Center City Philadelphia on Wednesday, Rendell said fracking has risks but those can be mitigated.
“I made a mistake in the rush to get the economic part of fracking delivered to Pennsylvania,” he said. “We didn’t regulate well construction and …. frack water as well as we should. We cured that in 2010 and we haven’t had any significant incidents since.”
Although the state did tighten regulations regarding drilling wastewater disposal into rivers and streams in 2010, some water treatment facilities were still discharging partially treated wastewater into state surface waters at the time. Pennsylvania also introduced some new well construction standards in 2010. But the state’s oil and gas law was not updated until 2012 under Rendell’s successor, Republican Governor Tom Corbett and the state still has not finalized its effort to modernize oil and gas regulations. Rendell also failed to get a shale gas tax before he left office in January, 2011. Rendell left the panel discussion without taking any questions from StateImpact.
It’s unclear what he meant by no significant incidents since 2010. The state Department of Environmental Protection maintains a list of 280 private water supplies that have been damaged by oil and gas development since 2008.
As governor, Rendell promoted the shale gas industry, leasing roughly 130,000 acres of state forest land to gas drillers. In a 2014 court case, two senior members of his administration described the intense pressure they felt to raise revenue by leasing public land.
At the panel discussion of energy issues, Rendell also said communities should be able to decide whether or not to allow fracking, something the courts have repeatedly ruled against. The Democratic Party Platform also supports fracking bans in individual communities, although not nationwide.
Rendell’s comments at the DNC appear to be a change in tone from 2013 when he penned an op-ed urging fellow Democrat, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, to embrace fracking in his state.